Louisiana’s PARCC-ish Raw Scores Released– with Contradiction

October 9, 2015

On September 21, 2015, 32 individuals, including two legislators and four state board members, filed a publi records request for the immediate release of Louisiana’s PARCC-styled raw score information.

On September 29, 2015, Louisiana superintendent John White made the following comment regarding those raw scores, as reported in The Lens:

On Wednesday, the Louisiana Department of Education released the raw scores, or the preliminary average number of points earned by students statewide by grade and subject on the PARCC test, or the raw score. To see the data, click here. …

For PARCC testing, he said,”the raw score formula is going to be very different from year to year and from state to state. That’s why you need to convert it into a scale, and that scale ultimately determines the cut scores because the cut scores will be the point on the scale at which students have typically demonstrated a basic command, a mastery command and so on and so forth.”

Statewide scaled scores will be shared Monday. [Emphasis added.]

So, which is it: Did Louisiana students take the “same questions, same order, nothing different” than did Pearson-PARCC-contracted states (of which Louisiana is not), or is “the raw score formula… very different… from state to state”?

The Louisiana Department of Education is long overdue for a comprehensive audit in order for the Louisiana public to know what exactly it might “believe” about what comes out of John White’s double-speaking mouth.

These scores seem to (how can I say this?) suck! I would expect dramatically improved scoring when you have a TFA alum (read elite individual) who is convinced that privatizing public education using the proven “test and Punish” strategy is the path to education nirvana. Is it the non-charter schools still left in recalcitrant areas of Louisiana pulling down the dramatically improved test scores in New Orleans? Maybe not. More likely that having an amateur from TFA that has no deep understanding of education leading schools is a recipe for harming public education.